Comfort

I've never been a big fan of the 5th generation Chevy Camaro. I don't really love its cartoonish looks, arrow-slit front window, gimmicky interior or its truck-like powertrain in the SS version. (The V6 version isn't worth discussing. It's all Mustang all day there.)

But then I drove a ZL1. Turns out, all the Camaro needed was a supercharged V8 that would fry the rear tires if you looked at the gas pedal funny.

The ZL1 was fast, controllable, comfortable, made cool noises, and generally made me want to go for long drives where the tires came back all melty and feathered. That car was fun. That car made me happy. Our long-term 2014 SLP Panther is all that and then some.

I don't know about you, but it's not every day that I get to drive a 600-horsepower vehicle like our long-term 2014 SLP Panther Camaro. It is a wild beast that has more power than any human would ever need. So, what's the first thing I did when I got behind the wheel? I went to Target.

One of the more impressive qualities about our 2014 SLP Panther Camaro is how well it rides on the freeway. As Scott noted previously, it's more complaint than a lot of other sporting cars. Factor in the moderate amounts of wind, road and exhaust noise and you've got a muscle car that begs to be taken on road trips. In fact, I'm sure some of my coworkers will do just that in the coming months.

But for me, at least, I find the driver position to be rather mediocre in terms of comfort.

I'll be the first to admit I had my reservations about our 2014 SLP Panther Camaro. I was tasked with driving it off the SEMA show floor in Las Vegas and back to L.A. In my head, it would have far too much power, too little gearing and a suspension that rivals a shopping cart.

Those who know me know I have an affinity for black Camaros, like the 1969 SS427 my father and I just put together. Those that know me know I also have an affinity for black and gold cars, like the 1976 Pontiac Trans Am I've owned for about 15 years.

Because it started life as a Camaro SS, our long-term 2014 SLP Panther 600 has a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission. It's a familiar gearbox if you've driven any powerful, rear-wheel-drive car of American lineage. SLP enhances it with a short-throw shifter kit, and our Panther also has the company's optional heavy-duty clutch kit.

I've now driven our SLP Camaro in a variety of traffic conditions, and this is one of the better applications of the TR6060 I've experienced.

I recently spent a long weekend in our 2014 SLP Panther 600 Camaro. If you like Camaros, it's tough not to like what SLP does with them. This car moves out quickly, and from the driver seat with the windows up, it makes exactly the noises you want to hear from a supercharged V8 at exactly the right volume. Of course, I hear it's quite a bit louder outside the Panther, but that's my neighbors' concern, not mine.

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